But first, let me take a selfie… If you’ve heard this song, chances are that you’re either a millennial or that you love taking selfies. Well, to be honest, everyone loves taking selfies and since the day mobiles with front cameras made their way to the markets, the selfie culture has spread further! It’s almost like looking into a mirror with the added advantage of capturing that image forever. And while the selfie mania first hit teenagers, it’s now a thing of the older generation too! Be it your friends, your aunts or your dad, everyone loves taking a selfie, randomly and on special occasions.

But, the biggest question that comes to our minds when uploading a selfie is that ‘What should I caption it?’ Every selfie is different from the other and your confused what caption should go with the one you took with mum and the one that has your entire girl gang in it. You want to stand out, you don’t want it to be cliche’ and you definitely don’t want to copy someone else’s. Now we understand how confusing it can be and that is why we’re giving you all the information you need to get that caption right. Read on!

How to get your selfie captions right?

A good caption should provide context, show your personality and be engaging for your friends and followers. Since captions don’t have a word limit and can go up to 2,200 characters in length, you should include emojis and a good number of hashtags. Even though experts say the more the hashtags the better to increase your followers, sometimes it could also come across as overdoing it. So, make sure you have a balance between your words, emojis and hashtags.

Know your audience- Whether your followers are just your friends and family, or you have a public profile, you need to know who you’re writing for. Based on who your followers are, you need to be sure that your caption does not come across as offensive to anyone and it’s something that most people would like. For example, I love seeing all my friend’s pictures and throwback photos, but what makes them even better is the caption. The caption is just as important as the picture and catches all the attention.

Place the most important bits at the beginning- Everyone likes to read a good caption if it’s well written. But when writing long captions, it’s important to place the most interesting bit first. This is what will catch the attention of your friends and make them read further instead of just scrolling away. You need to convey your key points right in the beginning. Questions are also one of the most popular forms of engagement, so keep that in mind when you’re captioning your image. Questions also encourage your followers to comment and hence draw engagement.

Emojis, if used wisely, can be a quite a bonus- Emojis always draw a lot of attention, if you use them well. The animated icons are also a great way to add a bit of personality to your captions. Emoji can also stand in for entire words, keeping your copy short and fun.

Quotes make for great captions- What better than using a quote by Maya Angelou or Mahatma Gandhi to go with your picture. But obviously, it should make sense and go with the image that you’ve posted. Randomly quoting famous people will not help.

Informative captions are the way to go- People always love a piece of new information, especially when it’s useful and important. So if you’ve gone for a trip and clicked that gorgeous selfie with the ocean as your backdrop, write a quick tip or a little-known fact about the destination as your caption.

Behind the scenes captions- If you’re an artist, or a chef or maybe someone who likes to do up their home, a before and after selfie is sure to attract a lot of attention! Your caption can describe the process of then to now or include tips for your followers in case they’d like to make the same dish or do up their home the same way.

The storytelling caption- Everyone loves to hear a good story, whether it’s about the first time you met your boyfriend, or how you and your bestie had the most amazing night of your lives, or the time you visited a zoo for the first time. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a storytelling caption makes it even better.

Minimalist/Short captions- If your picture is attention-grabbing and speaks for itself, a short caption is the best.

There’s an entire variety of selfies that you take. Selfies with your parents, your BFFs, your siblings and your pet. And if you’re stuck at what to caption them, then we’ve got a whole lot of options for you.

And to take your selfie game to another level, here are some selfie apps that you must check out:

1. Facetune and Perfect365- With over 100 million users worldwide, Facetune and Perfect365 let you edit and colour correct your selfies. If you want to change your eye colour or get rid of that tiny little pimple, these two apps will come in handy!

2. Boomerang- Who doesn’t love to shoot boomerangs?! A selfie boomerang is fun and this is the app you need to download for it.

3. Giphy Cam- If you’re looking to record your various moods with a series of GIFs, then this app is for you. Go download and get your creative juices flowing!

4. Enlight- This app is the perfect picture corrector, whether it’s the brightness of the picture or the filter, you can experiment until you get what you like.

So, with everything that you now know, are you ready to click that perfect selfie and give it a caption that your followers will love?!

Images: Giphy, Shutterstock

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